AI’s Job Threat Leaves Workers Facing the Losses

Bill Gates says AI could make telesales, telesupport and accounting jobs disappear, while humanoid robots take over blue-collar work. The people whose labor may be displaced get no quoted voice in the article. Billionaires and corporate leaders provide the forecasts and proposed fixes.

The bosses describe the disruption

Apollo Global Management Inc. Chief Economist Torsten Slok said AI has delivered “zero payoff” to corporate America outside technology, despite significant investment. “Revenue per worker is rising for the Mag 7 but is flat for the S&P 493,” Slok wrote in a note published Saturday. Profit margins followed the same pattern, he wrote, and he sees no signs yet that AI is boosting productivity growth.

Gates, the Microsoft cofounder and billionaire philanthropist, warned on the latest episode of the “Decoder” podcast that the transition could bring “winners and losers and a lot of disruption.” AI, he said, could perform telesales, telesupport and accounting tasks “radically cheaper, radically faster, and even more accurately.” Humanoid robots, he predicted, would take over blue-collar jobs.

“If we don't choose to massively slow down or stop, then we will have robots that can build houses, grow food, do surgery,” Gates said. “And none of the things that human labor provides to the economy will be necessary for most goods and services.” In this forecast, people who do that work appear as a cost to replace, not as decision-makers over the technology or its gains.

Gates said work gives people purpose, income, a reason to show up each day, relationships with colleagues, and a way to build things and solve problems. Art, sports, cooking and childcare could remain human activities, he suggested, “even though the AI could do those things better.” He also floated early retirement and limits on working hours as ways to preserve some human employment.

A promised cushion, designed from the top

Jeff Bezos and Jamie Dimon have proposed a shorter workweek as a less painful alternative to AI-driven unemployment. Elon Musk has proposed government checks for everyone as the best solution to job losses, while predicting that work could become “optional” as technology drives production costs low. Those proposals leave the terms of employment and the distribution of gains in the hands of people who already lead major companies or fortunes; the article describes no worker-led plan or collective decision-making process.

Anthropic's Dario Amodei said AI promises to “raise the quality of life for everyone,” but warned that the “short-term shock will be unprecedented in size.” OpenAI's Sam Altman said in May that AI hadn't eliminated as many white-collar jobs as he expected and that he no longer anticipated a “jobs apocalypse.” Despite widespread concern about corporate job losses and high-profile layoffs at Amazon and Meta, national unemployment hadn't increased materially during the AI boom.

Gates imagined people choosing to “be like the Amish and let's only use AI for certain things,” so they wouldn't have to give up “helping each other or coming up with unique ideas.” He said it would be jarring for someone with his resources, which have allowed him to lead efforts to eliminate malaria and address other humanitarian crises, to be superseded by AI. The article gives no funding details for those efforts.

Gathering is an economy, too

Davis Noell, a senior managing director and co-head of North America at Providence Equity Partners, said demand for in-person experiences is growing alongside AI. Providence is the majority owner of THE•TEAM, the sports, music and entertainment agency formerly known as Wasserman, and agreed in July to take full ownership of the company. Noell called this trend the “IRL Economy.”

Providence estimates that the market for concerts and theater, live sports and trade shows stood at roughly $700 billion in 2024 and could reach about $1.0 trillion by 2030. Noell wrote that more than 17.5 million people attended shows at London's West End venues in 2025, nearly 15% above pre-pandemic levels.

Noell said people have renewed their appreciation for experiencing life in person and are seeking more chances to gather. He cited the value of in-person connection and wrote that activities once treated as discretionary are increasingly seen as sources of community and connection. Technology, he said, also makes offline activities more visible and shareable.

At least 28,000 U.S. companies primarily stage live performances, run spectator sports, promote events or organize trade shows, Noell wrote. He contrasted that decentralized experience economy with digital media and AI, which he said are concentrated among relatively few dominant companies. Live events rely on networks of businesses in production, logistics, staging, technology and venue operations, many of them relatively small and specialized.

Noell warned that unlimited ticket-price increases could reduce access, and that high-end hospitality could take priority over a shared game-day experience. Companies that exploit fans, he said, could be burned. He argued that AI and the IRL Economy could reinforce each other, while writing that AI “will never replace human nature.” The article includes no account of fans organizing over prices; it records a warning from an investor whose firm owns a major events agency.